I was sooooooooo sick today. Last night, Sarah, Kim, Jeff, and I went out for dinner because yesterday was Sarah’s birthday. We had a dinner at Cesar’s, and of course, we had two pitchers of margaritas (and free shots). Courtney joined us later, so we went to Monsoon for drinks because all martinis are $5 on Sunday night there. I had three drinks which definitely gave me a buzz (more than buzz..I guess!). Even Jeff had two appletini! Madness!! I don’t know why, but I ended up taking them to the boystown after that. I was gonna take them Berlin, but I couldn’t find the club because I was drunk! I still cannot believe that I couldn’t find Berlin because it’s on the fucking Belmont ave! How could I miss that! Anyway, we made bathroom stop at Spin (for 5 mins). Then, I was gonna take them to Roscoe’s, but Roscoe’s close at 2am, so we went to Hydrate! The good thing (maybe bad thing) was we (well, Sarah and I) got lots of free drinks. I was telling bartenders that it was her birthday, so of course, they gave us free shots. I do not remember how many drinks I had there. Poor Jeff was just sitting on the chair while we were dancing! By the time we got out of the club, I was pretty drunk. I guess they knew I was drunk cos they put me into the cab without my consent!

This morning, I found myself naked sleeping on the couch. I woke up around 7:30am cos I had to go to work. But, I was having massive hang over, and the world was still spinning. I didn’t wanna skip work, so I managed to take a shower and get dressed aaand actually went to work (on time!). I had a research meeting from 2pm & doctor’s appointment from 2:30pm, so I just needed to work for 5 hours. However, I couldn’t make it. After I did data entry for an hour, I just could not keep working. I told Lindsay “I need to go home.” I almost passed out when I got my room, but I had to email Dr. Brown that I would not be able to make it to the meeting. I was gonna cancel the doctor’s appointment, but it took me three weeks to get this appointment, so I forced myself to see a doctor in this afternoon. I think I forgot to pay….oh well.

I guess I am going to Lima in the end of this year. Cecilia gave me a wedding invitation at the party she was having last Friday. I have never been to Peru, so I guess that’s kinda cool I have a chance to go there.

I decided that I will not drink until Cinco de Mayo!

Of course, tonight was Friends night. I cannot believe Friends is actually not coming back! How sad! I love Friends! I know many people think the show kinda started getting old and was not funny anymore. I think the last couple seasons weren’t as good as previous seasons, but I still liked the show. I thought the last episode was good, not awesome, but I liked it.

I am having second interview at highland park high tomorrow morning. I guess I better go to the bed!

So, I went to the Highland Park High yesterday for the second interview. I had an appointment from 9:30am (kinda early), so I left here around 7:30am. I thought there would be lots of traffic, but actually, they weren’t. As a result, I got to Highland Park really really early. I could just go to the school, but I wanted to be on time, so I just sipping tea at coffee shop. Well, yeah, I stopped by StarBucks!! Noooooooo!!! Eeeewwwwww!! Anyway, after I spent Starbuckish time there, I went to the school. The interview didn’t go that well… I had a second interview because new supervisor concerned about my inexperience with adolescence. She was asking me if I have taken group counseling class. Of course, I was supposed to take it this summer, but since it was cancelled, well, I haven’t taken it! Because they do lots of group counseling, she wanted me to take group counseling next semester. Well, since the course is not offering next semester, I guess I cannot! Ugh. Of course, I did stay at Drop in Center for couple hours (again) to show her I am cool with kids. But, she was gone for two hours, so I don’t know how much she was able to observe my coolness! I was glad that kids I talked to last time remembered me and got really excited. They were telling other counselors “Ken stays.” Well, I hope so!!

After I got back from Highland Park, I was gonna go to the gym, but I accidentally fell asleep. I have no idea how the hell I could fall asleep while watching Rumsfeld testimony! I think his face kinda made me sleepy!

I like daily contact lens because I can throw them away after I take off. I ordered my lenses online, but they couldn’t take my order because my prescription has been expired. So, I went to Lenscrafters to get eye exam in this morning. The doctor there was kinda sucked. Most part of eye exam was administered by the staff there, and the doctor just examined my eyes for couple minutes and said “Good.” Hmmm. The thing was my eyes were so itchy and obviously I was having allergic reaction in this morning. But, she really didn’t see that… Hmmmm. I used to have a date who was eye doctor, so I could get free comprehensive eye exam. I had lots of eye problems at that time, but I didn’t pay a dime! So, I wasn’t happy at all with paying $126 for awful eye exam today! Oh well, I really needed prescription, so I guess that’s alright. Good news was I found out that there is daily toric lens which wasn’t available the last time I had an eye exam. Of course, I ordered daily toric lenses for my left eye! Well, daily toric lenses are kinda expensive than regular daily lenses, but you know, I gotta have clear vision cos summer is coming! There will be naked people (with pants on) running outside which motivate my daily running chore!

When I was watching Dateline today, I saw Dr. Zimbardo! Oooooh, I didn’t know he is still alive. I thought about his study when I first heard about the Iraqi prisoner abuse stuff. So, it was cool to see him on TV talking about his super famous prison study. Also, it was super cool to see the interview with the participants!

I am so sad that the weekend is over! I feel like I was just doing laundry. Oh well.

It’s time for E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo)! Yaaaaay! This time of the year, I always get excited to see all new cool games and hardware. Nintendo and Sony unveiled their new portable game players today. Well, I am pretty sure I will be both of them! I think Nintendo DS is interesting. I cannot wait to see the games using dual screens. Also, able to play old gameboy games is big plus! But, DS seemed to be kinda bulky and heavy. As you may know, I hate bulky big chunky game machine such as XBOX! Sony PSP is really good looking machine. It has cool design, and more importantly, it’s light and small but has big screen!! Oh, and new Zelda game is coming too! Ooooh, I cannot wait! But, wait, I haven’t played Wind Walker yet! I saw the trailer of FFXII on TV, and the graphic was incredible!

It was another boring day at work, but I found out that I got an offer from Highland Park high! Yaaaay!! I am really glad that I could get the position because I really liked the school. It takes almost hour to get there, gas price is rising like a mug, but I don’t care!

I couldn’t go to the gym in this morning, so I went to the gym around 7pm. It was simply big mistake. The gym was packed, and there was no way I could work out. So, I just did some lifting and came back. Idiotic! I did run before I went to the gym, so I was okay, but wish I could work out. I guess I gotta go to the gym tomorrow morning!

I saw the news about the American civilian was killed, and the tape was released on the website. Out of curiosity, I kinda wanted to see the tape, but no news sites had link to the website. So, after 10 minutes of searching for the videotape, I was able to find one. Well, another big mistake today. I should never ever watch such awful video. I am usually okay with seeing dead people pictures and some video clips. But, this one was just awful. I guess I do not like seeing people chopping someone’s head… After I watched it, I was deeply disturbed and felt unlimited sorrow! Seriously, it’s just wrong, wrong, wrong and wrong! Then, on MTV, it was showing “Making the Band” crap. Who cares about P.Diddy’s stupid band! Then, I switched to Fox news and it was showing abuse scandal stuff. I guess it’s nice to have a choice, but sometime, I don’t get them.

I am really tired!!

When I do bench press at the gym, there is my favorite spot. Because my gym is on 7th floor, the gym has great city view. Especially, from my favorite bench press spot, I can see whole downtown, and it’s really really cool. But, in this morning, I couldn’t get my spot! Even though it was super early, there was a guy doing bench press at my spot! There are 5 or 6 bench press machines, but he was using my spot! Life is tough!

At work, there is a guy, I really don’t like beside Ron. Well, I don’t dislike Ron, I just don’t get along with him. But, this guy, I do not like. He is kinda phony.. Well, he thinks he is so cool and funny, but he is actually damn and just annoying. Ugh! By the way, I think instant messaging stuff are really lower the office productivity! All people in the office just keep messaging and playing game on PC and do some work between chatting… And, I am working at graduate admission office… Good thing applicants cannot see what kinda people are handling their applications!

I think long is good. I like long candy bar, long TV (well, wide TV), long room (bar I went to), long legs (I wish I have them), long vacation, etc… Because I like long stuff, I took long lunch break today. Well, actually, I met up with Josh and had a lunch together. Josh hasn’t familiarized the downtown, so when I asked him if we could meet up at Virgin Mega Store, he had no idea. Hmmmm, so I just told him that we could meet at Michigan and Ohio. I kinda remembered that his office is on Grand and something, so I thought meeting up at Michigan/Ohio wasn’t that bad idea. But, when he finally showed up, he seemed to be exhausted! I felt kinda bad to go to Whole Foods, but I wanted to salad, so we went there. I wasn’t planning to take loooong lunch break, but I ended up taking over an hour break. I usually just get salad at Whole Foods and go back to the office aaand eat there because I don’t like the smell of Whole Foods. I kinda worried if my boss would say something, but they seemed they couldn’t careless, so it was all good.

I had to leave the office early because I needed to go to Evanston. I took redline to Howard, but I really think I should take an express bus to Howard from Watertower. Redline stops at every station between Belmont and Howard. Since I was running late, it was sooooo frustrating! Also, I was sitting next to a guy who didn’t get off until Howard station! Well, I could switch the seat, but I didn’t because if I switched the seat, it’s like saying “I don’t like sitting next to you Biiiaaaatich!” So, I didn’t because I am a nice guy!

I wanted to do a lot of things over the weekend because my summer class starts from tomorrow. So, I was thinking to wash my car, go shopping, hang out with my friends, clean my room, buy some foods, do some long running, play video games, etc etc… But, I think I only could accomplish 1/3 of things I wanted to do!

Friday night, I went to El Tapatio with Josh, Priyada, Jessie, and Dave. I had to wait for about an hour, but it really didn’t bother us cos we had couple drinks at the bar cross the street from the restaurant. After we ate dinner, we were thinking about going out, but we ended up with hanging out at Dave’s apt. Because he sells lighting stuff, he has lots of cool lights in his room. I hope I can get some lighting stuff from him!

I didn’t really drink that much on Friday night, but I had no energy on Saturday! I was planning to go to Public I, but I just watched Nick all day! Priyada called me if I wanted to go to the party, but I just told her I didn’t feel like going out. But, I agreed to go out when Laura called me cos I hadn’t seen people from the program for a while. But, actually, there were only five of us going out together. I was so tired by the time I got to the Laura’s house because I had long run in the afternoon. I certainly didn’t feel like drinking, so I didn’t drink at first, but when we went to the second bar, I started drinking. I guess Guinness boosted my energy and I was fine after that. For some reasons, we were all hungry, so we went to Pick Me Up café to get something to eat. I ate like a mug there, so I walked home to burn some calories!

I didn’t feel like running today, but I went running anyway. Although I felt not so good, I had pretty good run. When I got to the Navy Pier, I suddenly felt super good, so I just kept running until I got bored. I think I ran 7 – 8 miles today. I am planning to run half marathon in the end of this month, so I gotta keep running!

It has been a crazy week! My summer class finally began, but I am still working at the graduate admission office, full-time! I have a class Monday and Wednesday from 5pm till 8pm, so both days are pretty annoying for me cos I work from 9am till 5pm! Of course, I still wanna work out and run, I go to the gym 6am in the morning and go jogging after I come back from school. I really really think my current life style cannot be healthier than this!

My mom called me tonight and told me two HUGE news. Well, okay, here is how it went.

Me: Hello?
Mom: Ken-bo? It’s me, your mama! (of course, in Japanese)
Me: what’s up mother?
Mom: How are you doing Ken-bo?
Me: Well, I just got back from school.
Mom: Oh okay. I just wanted to tell you two things.
Me: What’s that?
Mom: Well, okay, first news. I took a puppy to the groomer.
Me: ……..okay.
Mom: You know, your friend works there. (I told my mom that my friend is pet groomer and works at pet shop near by my parents’ house)
Me: Oh, that’s cool. How was it?
Mom: That was great. She was really nice girl! I liked her! She asked me about your cat.
Me: Yeah, she is always nice. Don’t you remember her? She and her boyfriend always hung out at my room when we were in high school. She used to play with my cat all the time.
Mom: Really? Oops. I said to her it was nice to meet her!
Me: Ouch. I even went camping with them last summer!
Mom: Oooh, that was her? Hmmmm. Okay. Next news!
Me: Oh, mother!
Mom: Guess what? We are moving back to Hiroshima city!
Me: WHAT?
Mom: Yeah, your father has been transferred.
Me: Why? Why? Why? Why? Whhhhhhhhy???
Mom: You know…..(she explained to me why they are going back to Hiroshima city)
Me: That sucks. I really don’t wanna move back to Hiroshima city.
Mom: Why not? You even don’t live here.
Me: Because I have friends there! I don’t have any friends in Hiroshima city!
Mom: oh c’mon. You can visit your friends.
Me: It’s different! Didn’t you just move there couple years ago?
Mom: Yeah, but you know, that’s your father has to do.
Me: Suuuuuuuuuuux!

Well, I talked other stuff with my mom too, but I was very upset about my parents moving to Hiroshima city. It just doesn’t make sense to me! I guess the next time I go back to Japan, I will stay at some strange house…again!

The weekend was really stormy. I mean literally. Storms just kept coming, and it was not pleasant at all. Especially, last Thursday, I went to Potbelly in Lincoln Park. By the time I got to Fullerton station, it was raining super heavily. It was like millions of super big buckets of water coming from the sky! A lot of people couldn’t leave the station because of the heavy rain. Although I had an umbrella, it was no use. I was all wet when I got to the Potbelly! Ugh!

On Friday evening, I went to Navy Pier with Priyada and Josh for the first time! I usually jog there, but I had never really checked out the place. So, it was fun even though it started raining and kinda cold (I was wearing only shorts and short-sleeves shirt). We had dinner and couple beers in downtown. I don’t go out to the downtown at night, so it was fun too!

Last night, I planned to go to the Lakeview Mayfest with friends from the program. But, we ended up with just going out to the bars! We had dinner at Mystic Celt and waited for rain to stop. Fortunately, after couple of Guinness, rain stopped, so we moved to another bar. We tried to go to Bar Celona, but it was packed. So, we went to Tryst. I always wanted to go to Tryst, but I never had a chance to go because Tryst looks kinda fancy. Well, actually, Tryst is fancy place, but it’s not too fancy. You can still wear jeans and button down shirt, and you are still fine kinda place. I guess you can do “overload” dress up, but well, it is in Wrigleyville, I wouldn’t do that! We actually liked Tryst a lot. The atmosphere was really refreshing and not noisy at all. But, the thing I liked Tryst the most was one of the bartender was super hot. I could just look at the bartender all night! I must come back there!

I like Triple 5 Soul stuff. They are fun clothes. When I saw Triple 5 Soul jacket at Urban Outfitter last year, I wanted to buy it. But, it cost me $100, so I didn’t buy it. I was kinda hoping the jacket would go on sale, and actually it was on sale at urbn.com. But, my size was all sold out, so I, again, didn’t buy it. Then, today, I had to go to Evanston after I got off from work. I had a half hour till my appointment, so I went to Urban Outfitters. Then, I saw Triple 5 Soul jacket was on sale! And it was my size! Of course, I bought it. Now, I really really want to buy Puma Mostro…leather one. Ugh. And, I still need to buy square toes black shoes! Ugh! Ugh! Can I really upgrade my PC??

I am trying to do half marathon in this weekend. Hmmm, but because it’s memorial weekend, so many good stuff are going on in Chicago land! So annoying! Ashley and I saw $20 open bar deal on metromix, and we agreed that we should go. But, I really wanna do half marathon thing, so I don’t know if I wanna go out Sunday night! I wish the marathon were on Sunday….and didn’t start from 6am….

In this memorial weekend, there is International Mr. Leather in Chicago. Well, since I do not wear any clothes made of leather, it seems like IML is nothing to do with me. However, I kinda fantasize about leather guys. Hmmm, I guess I don’t fantasize leather guys, I associate leather with masculinity and power. It’s like if you are riding Harley Davidson, you gotta wear biker jacket and boots because that’s the way it is. I kinda wanna see the contest, but since the ticket isn’t that cheap, I must pass!!

The work wasn’t fun today. One of the guys I work with is just drama queen, and he was making a scene at work. Ugh!

Well, it’s memorial weekend. The weekend for memory and other stuff such as BBQ, Indy 500, parade, and IML! Well, anywho, my weekend was pretty good. I went out Thursday night with girls from the program, and on Friday night, I went out with Andrew who was in town for the geeky psycho conference. I was kinda drunk Thursday night, so I didn’t wanna get too drunk on Friday, but I was drunk anyway. Andrew wanted to go to Hey Sushi, again, so we went there for dinner. He got some cheese kinda sushi and redbull vodka, again, and seemed to be very happy. Then, we went to the bar called Other Side on Clark st. We finished up the night with a pitcher of blue moon.

I was still so tired on Sat, but Priyada called me if I wanted to go shopping. Well, I am 24/7 ready for shopping, so we went to shopping. There were so many people in downtown, really lots of people. We met up with Josh and ate dinner together. I feel like I have been having dinner with these guys in the every weekend! Anyway, I ended up with going to their house after that to hang out. Of course, I did stay over, again!

In this morning, Priyada and I went to the power flex class at the gym together. I had never been to this class before, but it was pretty good one. I am avoiding doing any running right now because I hurt my right ankle (well, tendon…ouch!), and every time I run, it hurts so bad. So, I am not longer able to do half marathon tomorrow! My right ankle felt kinda funny for couple weeks, but last Tuesday, after I ran 5 miles, I couldn’t run anymore cos it hurt so baaaaaad! Suuuuuux!!

I woke up around 7am in this morning. However, I forced myself to stay in the bed until 10am because I wanted to enjoy this holiday sleeping in. I did eventually got up and went to the gym, but the gym was packed! So, I briefly worked out and went back to my room. I was gonna play video games, but didn’t feel like it, so I just watched “Clean Sweep” on TLC pretty much all afternoon.

Laura and Todd had a cook out in this evening, so I went to their house to get something to eat. The weather wasn’t great, but it wasn’t that bad, so it was okay! Since I do not eat meat, I brought my own garden burger for myself. Todd was nice enough to cook my burger separately from other meaty bloody flesh of cow. As a drink maker, I kept making frozen drinks for girls, and I think they did like my drinks. After we ate, we played pop culture trivia thing. I am so bad at trivia, so I wasn’t really happy with the game choice, but it was actually fun and educational!